This is a very intriguing topic, and I was surprised how quickly I was able to assemble a list. Sorry in advance for the novella.

My great-aunt used to doll me up and take me to her church when I was very small, and I loved how the Italian and French ladies dressed: fitted black lace dresses, heeled shoes, compact handbags, red lipstick, and the most delicious perfumes. Every woman looked like current-day Monica Bellucci in Dolce and Gabbana. To this day, I love vintage Gianni Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Dior, and YSL.

My Italian grandfather's every day style (when he wasn't sweating it out as a carpenter) was to "dress sharp": immaculate grooming, casual slacks, polo shirt, leather belt and shoes, Aqua Velva, and his hair coiffed high (he had a mane worthy of Michael Landon).

My grandma was English, and born around the same time as the Queen. Elizabeth was her lifelong style icon - something I never really knew until I watched The Crown. My grandmother wasn't formal or fancy, but she had a beauty routine she followed every morning and night, her entire life, and she was always beautifully-groomed.

Film influences: Film Noir heroines, Vivienne Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, all the Hitchcock Blondes, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe. Vera-Ellen in White Christmas. Fellini films.

1977 Nutcracker film (Kirkland/Baryshnikov): fitted pants, slightly flowy tops, fitted little jackets, tall, flat boots.

Junior high & high school was "Sloane Ranger", adventure- and safari-style via Indiana Jones and the Romancing The Stone, and elevated looks from The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Designing Women, 227, and Dynasty (Joan Collins)

College: Paula Abdul! Tania Coleridge in George Michel's "Father Figure". I wanted everything they wore.

The 1990s... eh. I blank out here, because GenX and Grunge were the antithesis of everything I loved.

2000s, I moved Okinawa, and it sparked my love for tropical, Hawaiian, and Asian style. I discovered Dita von Teese, and she immediately became my style spirit animal.

Other significant influences: Valmont, Mad Men, Mrs. Maisel, Star Trek, The Crown.

During the pandemic, I've copied a lot of Kate Middleton's casual style: striped shirt, dark jeans, espadrilles and wedges.

This is so fun! I can def "see" everyone's style in these descriptions. I am impressed at the degree of precice introspection and analysis.
For me I grew up in mostly hand-me-down clothes. I was also very lanky growing up (think Olive Oyl), so nothing really fit great. At least not for long. I early developed a view on clothing as "a nessecary evil" and something I would just feel awkward in. I know what I like and what I think look good, but it is just difficult to make it work on me. Still working on turning that around!

My mom was a business woman - head of accounting in big firm, and she also had her private accounting business on the side that she did from home office.
She loved clothes, shopping and fashion and she was always very well dressed. She actually loved it too much so she also shopped for all my clothes that lead to me not experimenting with fashion and developing my own style. I only started getting interested in fashion in my early 30ies and I still don’t have confidence in my style.

My roots are deep, indeed. I started grade school around 1960 when both teachers and students were "dressed up", there were school clothes and there were play clothes and those categories did not overlap. My teachers in the early grades were all young women just out of college and I used to describe what they wore to my mother. Most of my school dresses were made by my mom and I remember just about all of them.
My grandmother was a redhead and always wore dresses and necklaces that enhanced her coloring (she even bought a car that was turquoise at age 73). When she came out of her bedroom in the morning she had her makeup on and was in a dress and heels and had her makeup and necklace on (and she was a housewife). I've been going through old photos lately and have been impressed by how well-groomed and put together my grandmother looked well into her 80s, even though she'd grown up in modest circumstances. She grew up in the early 20th century during the time of the "dress doctors" as described by Linda Przybyszewski's book so maybe it was more common then to be attentive to how you presented yourself.
Growing up, I used to watch a lot of 1940s movies on tv and later I read a lot of WW2 history and am partial to that era's style -- the slim skirts, the jackets with lapels...some of that came back in the 80s so I relived it then and am still fond of jackets and blazers.

Thank you all so much for your responses! I found them all to be so fascinating! And, I can see everyone's influences reflected in their style.

My parents were hippies. I grew up in a Native American community. We spent months road-tripping to the west coast in our VW bus in the late 70s. I was a ballet dancer (18 years!), who was obsessed with Soul Train, Solid Gold, cosplay, Star Wars, and metal music. After college, I spent a few years in Austin before taking on a tech job in San Francisco. There, I discovered a love of the Castro district, the Grateful Dead, car camping at the beach, seasonally-confused outfits, tiki bars, and hoodies-as-office-attire. I stayed there until a few years ago...

My mom always had an opinion (usually critical) about how I looked. I did not look like my parents or most of the local kids, so I was always an outsider. My interests were also nothing like my mom's. She was the popular fashionista cheerleader in her youth; I was the nerdy freckle-faced redheaded girl who hated dresses and shoes. I suspect her criticism was her way of trying to connect with me. And, I am sure my rebellious teen years were my way of trying to widen that gap...

My dad worked in tech and wore button up shirts with disco collars, and wide pants to work. His DIY/weekend uniform was a plaid workshirt, denim (cutoff short-shorts in the summer, with knee-high striped socks LOL), and Timberland-style boots. My earliest memories were of him building things while cranking classic rock and disco in the garage. I definitely see his clothing choices reflected in what I like to wear...

As for my own style, I often think of myself as a walking contradiction - how can I feel simultaneously drawn to western boots, distressed jeans, moto pants, sequins, teddy coats, AND corduroy? But, looking at my life, I can see where every one of those influences came from! I guess I come by my scattered fashion choices quite honestly

I think I'm like my grandpa in that there was only so casual he'd be in public. He'd wear suits to dr appts!
My mom was a big thrift/consignment shopper "thrill of the hunt." I use (or did) boutiques for that instead. She's a lady of perpetual excess- I'm a minimalist as much as possible in rebellion

Child of the 70s, so influences from all decades. Influenced by music, theatre, dance, fitness. Used to be influenced by tv and probably movies, but I don't watch either anymore.

Color and style analysis has always been a big influence. I want to get it right and be done with it (till some magpie thing catches my fancy). I do think I can lean too far into Winter though, cause my mom.

I don't think I'm influenced by non- informative fashion blogs- the "look at my pretty outfit" with no real content behind it. Nor celebrities of any sort. I'm dressing for my life and my body, and want to be the best me, not a copy of someone else.

How fascinating, following so many different style journeys! And how wonderful to see the influence of so many beloved parents and grandparents here.

Hm. My mother, in my youth, wore a lot of long skirts, but now wears jeans with boho tops and comfy shoes, which is a cute look on her.

I have never fully scrubbed the 90s grunge-goth from myself, and I don't want to. I love a comfy boot and a button-front top with jeans! And that look can go from more-refined to hiking to daily casual wear pretty easily with accessories, different styles of tops, swapping the jeans out for dress trousers.

Came back to read all responses, so fascinating. Greyscale's comment made me realize I did pick up something from my mom: first, to dress for myself and not for others (within certain rules like those of school of course but I was never that rebellious anyway), and to look for things that flattered me. Figure flattery is so ingrained for me I don't even realize it. So my idea that I'm steering my own course is still very determined :-D.

Thanks for this interesting thread NemosMom and for your own commentary. I can see those influences in your style. And they work!!

Lots of really fascinating style roots.

My Mum was moderately interested in clothes and she helped me buy a few memorable dresses and play suits when I was young. Her own style was very much into details and jewelry and layers. As a red head she suited autumnal colours. I loved Charlie’s Angels and reading home sewing magazines with my stylish and conservative Grandma.

As a teen in the 80s I was pop culture influenced - Madonna, Bananarama, US tv etc. The 90s were not particularly fashionable years for me - travel, home ownership and being a student meant my money and efforts went elsewhere.

Since then I have circled around to my own style. A few missteps and experiments. I do feel I have got there now but maybe that is just that current trends suit me. I am sure there will be some more circling.

I have a hard time identifying what my style is. Even after years of following YLF. Others seem to be quite adept at identifying my style, while I still struggle. It occurs to me that my style, whatever it is, may be rooted in my family's frequent moves. I tried to copy whatever everyone else was wearing, because what I wanted more than anything was to fit in with my peers, wherever we went. My version was never the same as what other kids had, because I would show Mom what I was pining for, and she would make it for me (God bless her!). So it wasn't the store-bought version, but I loved what she made for me, and I liked having "my" version. Even now in the last decade, I could see my style change as I changed jobs; I always end up wearing some things that reflect the influence of people I am around. And to this day, I continue to see things that others are wearing and either copy them by buying the same things ("the lemming effect" here on YLF), or sometimes create my own version at the sewing machine. Now I am probably less influenced by others around me, and more influenced by what I see online (here on YLF and on sewing and retail sites). I imagine I do seem to have a distinct style, and I still struggle with pinning it down.

I have just re-read this great thread, thank you Nemosmom! And I’d like to say that even if you thought you were a nerdy red-headed kid, on here you’re definitely a gorgeous red-headed woman! I love your hair. In fact the twice in my life I have dyed my hair a different colour, aged 23 and 28, it was to red
I had an amusing conversation with my DD2 (27 y old) on Saturday afternoon. We made a sudden last-minute decision on Friday night to see if we could go to the Royal NZ Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty- a tradition of attending the Christmas ballet that we had neglected for 6 years. I always took the 2 girls and we would buy icecreams at interval. We suddenly realised it was on next day- and got tickets! ( Because productions are back on in our country). We missed DD1 who is holed up in the San Francisco East Bay Area.
Waiting for the parking machine, she said “Look, most people are nicely dressed, you’ll be pleased”. I agreed and she said “You always used to point out if people weren’t, like if they were wearing jeans”. I didn’t remember I had done that! And I had said this time to her, it’s fine if you don’t dress up, I know lots of people don’t these days. But she said she liked to have a chance to dress up- in a thrifted dress it was, she said. So I have been an influence, but I am also proud of her for buying thrifted!
BTW we both loved the ballet and will revive our tradition next year.

What a lovely story Jenni!!!

Nemosmom, your description of your dad, not to mention your own TX/CA/tech industry background, makes me think of the television series Halt and Catch Fire. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't already seen it. Fun watching the characters' styles change (or not change, as the case may be) through the decades. Plus, it's wonderfully well-written and acted.

Well, I am in my sixties, but many (probably most) of the styles, lines, prints, colours, fabrics, details, accessories, footwear, etc. that I love are things I have loved ever since I was a child or a young teenager.